Question 1

Is this router the V2 or V1? The picture looks like V2, but I just wanted to be sure.

Accepted Answer

Yes this is a V2 and what I was shipped.  I also double checked with netgear support because the product name doesnt help to identify.  Hope this helps.  It was easy to setup and I am getting dowload speeds of close to 30 meg and is the service I get from comcast. I am going to 50 meg service and will see how the router performs after link upgrade from comcast.

Question 2

I I have a DSL ISP and a cable ISP would I be better forgoing load balancing in favor of failover?
(If need be, please address validity of my belief that load balancing effectively includes failover!)

Accepted Answer

I've used both load balancing and failover.  I also have two ISPs.  The reality is that when I have a failover, the device is not instant.  In fact, most times, trying to deal with the failover takes more time than if I simply get up, get a cup of coffee and let the modem reboot.  I keep the load balancing on since both ISPs are about the same.  I also set rules where certain devices use one and other use the second.  But when I have a fail, all that goes out the door.  In failover mode, it might be 10 minutes before the second ISP kicks in.  I want instant but the reality is this device is not in the class range to provide real, instant failover or intelligent load balancing.

Question 3

Support RADIUS?

Accepted Answer

I do not know whether it supports to RADIUS protocol, but I do know it is extremely difficult to run a mail server behind this router. I am very disappointed. We bought two (2 lan linked through multihoming) thinking the 1 gig spec would be some advance. Turns out though the central problem is port forwarding. It is not handled in a "port forwarding" tab: it can be done but is seems that port 25 (smtp) is closed and opened by the router interrupting traffic to the mail server. New firmware was just installed. Perhaps this will solve the problem. But such a problem? in a router?

Question 4

Are the LAN ports configurable?

Accepted Answer

This is on par with most basic level firewalls.  You can configure the LAN ports with any internal IP network/address you want.  You are not limited to the default configuration.   So if you want to have it be 192.168.1.100/24 you can do that, or it can be 192.168.55.3/24, etc.  (It supports larger internal networks as well).
It does not support VLANs directly, but has the ability to define a secondary LAN network ID to allow computers with different network IDs to talk through this firewall to the Internet.  So, if you have one device with a 192.168.x.x address, and another with a 10.x.x.x address, they can both use this for gateway Internet access.
You also can make a separate DMZ network.
Of course your firewall rules can be created on any of the LAN to WAN or LAN to DMZ zones, but it cannot make firewall rules between different ports on the LAN.
I'm a network engineer and chose this for my home network for its affordable cost and high WAN bandwidth.  Netgear has performed well in the years past, and this one is doing quite well too.  I would buy it again.

Question 5

Will load balancing address integrated VOIP and data adequately?

Accepted Answer

Possibly. The question I have is what is integrated VoIP and data in this context? I will assume it to mean that you have Voice and data traffic on the same physical cable; yet want to be able to segregate the two such that voice will go out one WAN port with a unique IP and the voice will go out the other WAN with a different IP. This can be easily accomplish by protocol binding and then directing the bound protocol to the WAN port of interest. I do this quite frequently as I am a VoIP reseller and run into situations where I need to "protect" bandwidth such that the voice traffic is guaranteed a certain amount of allocated bandwidth. The issues are how much bandwidth in total is available, what voice codecs will be used so that you know how much bandwidth each call will occupy and how many simultaneous calls will occur at any one time? And finally perhaps some burst capacity to account for various issues that might arise given the carrier variations - cable. DSL, wirless, etc.. You can then throttle the WANS ports such that collectively they use 100% of the available bandwidth, but do not infringe on each other.

Question 6

is this the V2 that has a gigabit connection on lan and wan ports?

Accepted Answer

here is the link directly from netgear :  i connected my local wireless isp and a dish internet satellite connection - worked the minute i plugged it in - i did so little work to connect it - in my mind , trying to remember now - i really do not think i did anything at all to get it up and running but common sense would say i did something - but whatever it is it must have been very little. yes everything is gigabyte and in load balancing mode has performed great .

manual is online

Question 7

2 Questions:

1) How long should the failover take to switch over?  I've seen other routers switch over immediately.  Mine is taking minutes to switch to LAN2 when LAN1 goes down.

2) Can you configure this router to failover to WAN2 when the throughput of WAN1 drops to a very low number?  It seems to only failover when the connection is completely down.

Accepted Answer

We had issues also - actually have stopped using it - we wanted load balancing mainly and it just did not seem to be doing that for us very well - we were getting a little sharing going on - but nowhere near what we thought should have been going on.  If you find a device that works better - i wished i could leave my contact info - but they say no.

Question 8

? Can you tell me why I have the same model router FVS336G V2
Although I notice it is not a 10/100/1000 system according to the directions. I have did a firmware update with this unit to the version 3.1.1-8 the unit started bottle necking my bandwidth down to 12 Megs of it lost. Going into the modem I am getting the 53 meg bandwidth. I am on a KVM switch and I am getting the 53 also on my mac pc. Although every windows 7 machine  I get a bandwidth loss of 10 to 12  megs. Dose this unit get the bandwidth of 60 megs on both win 7 and also mac.
Please contact me at

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately that is the most speed you will get out of that firewall. Others have posted the same results and I have verified that it is true.

Questions & Answers